Valanciunas is just 20 and his inexperience is showing. His being foul prone is a combination of being a little over exuberant, his having some difficulty holding his position, and the opposition going after him as they are all too aware of JV's tendencies.

I agree, that its an occasion where a veteran that knows all the tricks and couldn't jump over a phone book is using his smarts over a young pup, but isn't JV's experience on his national team supposed to be one of his biggest assets over players coming out of NCAA?

I think it's good experience either way. Obviously he's not happy about it, and I'd rather send him out against guys like Scola, instead of some summer league hacks who are likely to get cut anyways. If he shows any shine during the Olympics I'd take that experience over summer league any day. I love that Scola said he's good.

Agree that the level of competition is better in the Olympics, but is he going to learn anything new from 2 weeks (if his team lasts that long) riding the pine for the most part? Wouldn't getting a head start on aclimating himself to a new country, team mates, coaches, surroundings, way of life etc.. me more useful at this stage? Playing a couple of games against Scola or Tyson Chandler isn't going to drastically change his game. Getting use to a new life will help his game more at this current stage. I'll say it again though that repping your country is something which is hard to pass on.

No, it was his expierence playing against men in the pro league. I always thought he would be better served (from the Raps perspective) to play summer league so they could work on transitioning to the NBA game, which would include addressing his tendency to foul. The Lithuanian's team goal is to win as many games as possible and medal, the Raps would develop the player.

I have a feeling there will be a lot of frustrating games this season just like this...big men need to adapt to what its like against NBA players...it's a whole new world

Yeah, I've always said around here that you need to treat big men like NFL wide receivers; you need to let them have two to three years to learn the pro game before you really can get a good idea of how good they can be.

Summer league play is crap...it has no benefit over Olympic ball other than he might have gotten to spend time with a couple of teammates and coaches. It doesn't teach anything. It's difficult getting a team of NBAers on the same page, so imagine getting a team of scrubs, most of whom are just ballhogs, to play anything resembling a team game. It doesn't, and didn't, happen. How would a p'n'r big like JV have benefitted playing on our team, that had no good PG on it??? He would not get reps that he needs. He would have to travel across the world for it and be jet lagged. He would then likely return to Lithuania, because most guys will not go to their NBA cities til some point in September a lot of the time. And there are limitless fouls and no one to pressure him with playing time in the summer league. The most important thing to teach rookies is accountability so they learn from mistakes. It is damn near impossible to hold people accountable in summer league. It really is just glorified pickup basketball. For JV it would have just been a more tiring, less valuable trip than the one he made for the olympics.

Agree that the level of competition is better in the Olympics, but is he going to learn anything new from 2 weeks (if his team lasts that long) riding the pine for the most part? Wouldn't getting a head start on aclimating himself to a new country, team mates, coaches, surroundings, way of life etc.. me more useful at this stage? Playing a couple of games against Scola or Tyson Chandler isn't going to drastically change his game. Getting use to a new life will help his game more at this current stage. I'll say it again though that repping your country is something which is hard to pass on.

You make some good points. I agree that getting to know the team, players, coach, city, is always a benefit, I don't think that a couple of extra weeks away from the team will alienate him too much from the rest of what's going on. Or at least I hope not.

I would argue that playing against a couple of guys like Chandler or Scola will make a difference. I think it would be a big eye opener to a guy who's played in Europe vs. the NBA game, and once again I think that playing against those guys even with limited minutes would be better value than some summer league guys who will likely find themselves as a starter on the Maine red claws (kidding...kind of)

Overall I don't think it will have too much positive or negative impact (as long as his doesn't injure himself (jesus, did I just jinx him!) but I like that he exposes himself to what life 'could' be like at the NBA level of competition.

Valid points and I've mentioned it a few times that the competition in the Olympics is much higher than Summer League. Not sure exactly how many minutes he's logged in the Olympic games so far, but I don't see how that changes a thing about his game or teaches him anything. The benefit of being in the Summer League means he's getting a head start on being a part of the Raptors...the benefit is not from anything gained in the summer league games themselves. He could be training with T. Ross, Lowry and the rest of the players that are currently in L.A. instead of watching the Olympic games from the bench in foul trouble.

Getting into foul trouble teaches him from this point exactly how hard he has to work to get bigger and be smarter about his play down low. He can't do that in summer league. It's an important lesson to start learning now: stay out of foul trouble, this will be your toughest adjustment. He's not going to make leaps and bounds at this point in the summer on his moves or muscle, so he should play/train in the most competitive place possible.

I also really don't understand the benefit you see in teammates playing together that much in the summer. Sure it might help a bit, but also don't forget the environment is totally UNSTRUCTURED, and therefore may not resemble anything they try to do on the floor together once training camp starts. In that case being in as high a level of structured ball possible is key. The only criticism about JV playing in the Olympics that I can think of is that it doesn't give him time in the weight room, which he needs.